Come experience what is reputed to be the best luxury home retreat in the Himalayas!
The warmth of our outstanding hospitality and personalised, attentive service will bring you back many-a-time, with friends and family!
This is very much a two-person life, not a one-person project — Varun and Ite host Himalaica together. Ite grew up in Kashmir. Varun is a Kumaoni, born and brought up, schooled in Nainital. And between them they carry a third mountain life from the years spent in Switzerland. Three ranges, one home — that’s really the whole story before they even started telling it.
Himalaica stands for an ache, not an idea to impress anyone — the whole philosophy, Himalayan Heimweh, came from a moment on the Zinal glacier in Switzerland, standing in one set of mountains and missing another. That feeling is genuinely why this place exists as it does. What makes it real is that three mountain lives actually live here — Ite’s Kashmir, Varun´s Kumaon, the Alps that they spent nearly two decades in. You notice it in corners, not as a theme — a Kashmiri weave here, Kumaoni craftsmanship there, an Alpine roofline holding both of them up.
The estate is a labour of love that is evident in the architecture, the interiors and the gardens. Built mostly by local craftsmen, the estate achieves a unique character that seamlessly meshes a traditional country style with modern comfort – drawing its inspiration from the past, living in the present, and looking into the future.
Set a little aside from the crowds that throng Nainital, Bhimtal, Naukuchiatal and Ramgarh – yet only about 10 kms away from all these places – Himalaica is a functioning home, with full-time staff, and a benchmark that says you will get pahadi chai or a freshly-brewed coffee anytime you walk in! We have limited but fresh menu using local organic produce and often grow some of our own vegetables. Himalaica was created as a place to be, to pause and to reflect, to meditate, to remember and to forget, and to bring back the balance in our lives that is all too lost. It is often described as a place with soul, and with a spiritual, meditative quality – we believe this quality comes from the ancient temple that exists under a large oak tree on the premises, dedicated to the Earth God.
